Zuzanna Ginczanka
Encyclopedia
Life
Zuzanna Ginczanka was born Zuzanna Polina Gincburg in KievKiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Her Jewish parents fled the Russian Revolution, settling in the Yiddish-speaking, then-Polish
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
town of Równe
Równe
Równe may refer to:*Polish name for Rivne in Ukraine*Równe, Masovian Voivodeship *Równe, Opole Voivodeship *Równe, Pomeranian Voivodeship *Równe, Subcarpathian Voivodeship...
, now in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
Ginczanka spoke both Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, the choice of her emancipated parents, and the Polish of her friends. Her longing to become a Polish poet caused her to choose the Polish language. She published her first poems while still at school.
During the years 1939-1941 she lived in Soviet Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, working as an editor. She wrote a number of Soviet propaganda poems. She moved to Nazi-occupied Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
in 1941, her perfect Polish allowing her to survive as a non-Jew under a false identity. However, friends connections to the resistance twice led to her denunciation and arrest. She was eventually denounced by the owner of her house, which led to her execution in 1944.
Despite the quality of her poetry, she was ignored and forgotten in postwar Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, as communist censors deemed her work to be undesirable.
In 1991, after Poland
History of Poland (1989–present)
In 1989-1991, Poland engaged in a democratic transition which put an end to the Polish People's Republic and led to a democratic regime, called Polish Third Republic...
regained independence, a volume of her collected poems was published, and in 1994 a biography by Izolda Kiec.
Publications
- O centaurach (1936)
- Wiersze wybrane (1953)
- Udźwignąć własne szczęście (1991)
External links
Further reading
- Izolda Kiec Zuzanna Ginczanka. Życie i twórczość. (1994)
- Agata Araszkiewicz Wypowiadam wam moje życie. Melancholia Zuzanny Ginczanki. (2001)